Former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier appointed French Prime Minister
5 September 2024, 13:38
Michel Barnier, the former Brexit negotiator for the EU, has been named as the French prime minister.
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Mr Barnier, 73, has been given the task of "forming a unifying government to serve the country and the French people", president Emmanuel Macron said.
In France, the president appoints the prime minister, but parliament has a de facto veto because it can bring down any government with a vote of no confidence.
Mr Barnier's appointment follows weeks of efforts by Mr Macron and his team to find a prime minister who will be able to build loose groupings of backers in the French parliament and lead a new government, following the July elections, which ended in deadlock.
The elections ended with the National Assembly divided into three, with none able to form a clear majority.
Mr Barnier, who is often referred to as Mr Brexit in France, is on the right of the political spectrum and sought to be elected as president three years ago on a platform of limiting immigration.
His appointment as Prime Minister was met with an angry response by the left-wing New Popular Front, which won the most seats in the election.
The party's leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said that the election had been "stolen" from the people and called supporters out to protest.
"This is now essentially a Macron-Le Pen government," he added.
Mr Macron's office said: "This appointment comes after an unprecedented cycle of consultations during which, in accordance with his constitutional duty, the President ensured that the prime minister and the future government would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the chances of uniting as broadly as possible."
Mr Barnier, a career politician from France's Alpine region of Haute-Savoie, was the European Union's chief negotiator in the difficult talks with the UK over its Brexit departure from the bloc between 2016 and 2019.
He will replace Gabriel Attal, who resigned on July 16 following the elections.
But Mr Macron kept Mr Attal and his ministers on in a caretaker capacity, handling day-to-day affairs, so political instability wouldn't overshadow the July 26-August 11 Paris Olympics, when France was in the global spotlight.
In political career over more than 50 years, Mr Barnier has served as French foreign, European affairs, environment and agriculture minister - and twice as a European commissioner.
